Health
(1) Whether her Department tested and/or screened travellers who entered the province during the Easter holiday; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) what are the details of operations that her Department held to contain the spread of COVID-19 during Easter holidays?
1. The Department of Health does not oversee the screening of passengers at ports of entry to the province. That mandate is held by Ports Health and further questions should be directed at them.
2. Prior to the Easter holiday period a number of risk mitigation initiatives were undertaken to ensure that the risk of increased travel and social activity could be avoided. Public messaging was sent out, requesting the public to observe sustained personal safety interventions: to avoid unnecessary inter-provincial travel, to avoid gatherings, to keep gatherings small, outdoors and to observe safety behaviour such as social distancing and mask wearing. This was promoted on a wide network of radio and other media platforms.
Through the provincial Joint Operations Committee the Department worked with municipalities and local operations committees to ensure that local business and stakeholders were also informed and compliance was ensured via law enforcement agencies. Engagements were also held with religious leadership to ensure safety in gatherings as far as possible.
Local health teams were all placed on heightened alert and were extra vigilant in monitoring potential local outbreaks and clusters and potential gatherings posing a threat.
